COMPANIES BUILDING BORDER WALL WANT TRUMP TO DEFEND THEM FROM BACKLASH

BY JESSICA KWONG ON 11/10/17 AT 10:43 AM

Construction companies that are helping build President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall want the Justice Department to protect them if several cities go ahead with their plan to stop doing business with any company involved in the controversial project.

The Associated General Contractors of America is demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions sue to prevent municipalities from divesting from construction companies currently building the wall prototypes near the Mexican border, a spokesman for the trade association said on Friday.

“If local and state politicians want to score political points demonstrating their opposition to a specific federal measure, they shouldn’t do it off the backs of hard-working craftspeople and their employers,” the spokesman, Brian Turmail, told Newsweek. “And we continue to urge federal officials to do the same.”

The demand for legal protections stems from a growing number of localities that have proposed or adopted measures to penalize private companies for bidding on federal contracts to design or build Trump’s wall. Cities such as Tucson, Arizona, and Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond in California have adopted such resolutions.

Border-Wall Bidders Plead for Trump's Help to Fend Off Opponents
Construction companies worried about a backlash for working on President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall are pushing for federal protections, including stopping cities and states from penalizing...
bloomberg.com

Richmond has not penalized any company because "no construction firm working on the border wall has bid on or participated in a city project" since the resolution passed, City Manager Bill Lindsay told Newsweek.

Berkeley, Oakland, Tucson and the Department of Justice could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.

The trade association, which represents more than 26,000 construction firms nationwide, wants to make sure firms are never penalized.

“It is imperative for the U.S. Department of Justice to commence litigation to enjoin and invalidate such discriminatory measures,” its letter to Sessions states. “This kind of discrimination against private companies that help the government accomplish its policy objectives cannot stand, so that the private sector, as a whole, will remain willing to perform the work that the government needs to implement national policies and protect national interests.”

Six companies are currently building eight prototypes for the wall outside of San Diego. One company that won a contract, KWR Construction, told Bloomberg in September that it is minority-owned, its workers have Mexican ties, and it respects that.

“If this fence is inevitable, it might as well be built well, and by us,” the firm said in a statement. “It should provide jobs to our workers who actually belong to these same border communities and care about the communities and the quality of construction here.”

We consumers could go a long way to fix many of the problems in this country.

There is, however, a big difference between individuals deciding to boycott with their own monies and with some government entity to push their agenda with taxpayer dollars.

As to the federal government stepping in to protect any private business, I don't like that idea.

A government, from federal to state, should not be doing those things. Jobs/contracts involving tax payer money, should be let on the basis of the best job for the least money. I would say a company engaging in illegal activities - like, oh maybe hiring illegals, perhaps that should be a factor - or no contracts to foreign companies, etc. To do the people's business based on the politics of the people in power is just wrong and should not happen.

There seems to be a large percentage of the American people who want this wall. Are their wishes being taken into account?

It's the foreign influence that's responsible for this. Those cities threatening this are owned by the cartels. American state and local governments don't operate this way on their own, the very idea of it is foreign.

It's the foreign influence that's responsible for this. Those cities threatening this are owned by the cartels. American state and local governments don't operate this way on their own, the very idea of it is foreign.

Just my observation, but they do operate this way.

It may very well be foreign influence, as in the international powers that be, but they have done the bidding of someone other than the people for a very long time.

If cartels are defined as everyone making money and protecting the drug trade, it's probably true. If we consider the drug cartel to be only the Mexican gangs, they are just the tip of the ice berg. This goes way beyond any Mexican gang -

Yes, our cities and our government are protecting the drug trade - no doubt about it.

My fear is the mindset that the 'cartels' ARE the drug trade is dangerous. The Mexican drug cartels are just part of the drug trade. The protection, the support, the facilitating of the drug trade goes all the way up in our society and government. The Mexican cartels are just a cog in that machine.

That's why I am concerned of the idea that it's the 'cartels' who are doing it. It gives the people of this country the wrong idea. If they can be convinced that it is only the Mexican gangs doing this, they won't think it is quite so bad. They will think somehow the 'war on drugs' can defeat Mexican gangs and they can continue the charade, and the profit taking and destruction of this country.

The drug cartels are world wide. Colombian cartels, El Salvador cartels, Chinese cartels, Afghanistan cartels, they're all over the world. The US is the biggest market because of the access through the US Mexican Border, which the Mexican cartels control, but the drugs come from many countries and are sold all over the world.

Yes, there are 'cartels' all over the world, but they all are facilitated by the same group when they come into the US.

The US is the biggest market for many reasons - not just our open border. Again, it takes a lot of protection, facilitation to get that many drugs into this country. Also, I still believe much of the foreign drugs are coming in on airplanes that no one would suspect. They may getting supplied by 'cartels' - but again, they are just a cog.

From what I have read, the majority of Ecstasy comes from Israel. Who would have thunk it?

Just my thoughts on it. If the government and media are putting the blame on the cartels, I think we should think a little farther.
Yes, if by the 'cartel', you also mean those people sitting in board rooms, Wall Street and halls of power who also have dirty hands in the drug business - then yes it is the cartel.

The drug business is too big, too prosperous for the money/power people to allow a bunch of Mexican, Colombian, Chinese, and other gangs to control it.